Games have always been popular. However, in view of today's up to date technology and marketing strategies, many of yesterday's games are now overly simplistic and therefore do not have consumer appeal.
It is becoming ever more apparent that in order for a game to be successful it must simulate, to a great extent, an actual life situation. For instance, in a sports game players want to play the game under, as much as possible, the same conditions as sports figures participating in actual playing conditions, particularly at a professional level.
The reproduction of a simulated sports surface on a board is shown in the prior art as, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,650 issued Sep. 27, 1988 to Doughty and U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,879 issued Feb. 5, 1991 to Nigh. Each of these patents shows a football surface reproduced in miniature scale on a game board. Cards and dice are used to move markers for both offensive and defensive player movement lengthwise of the board.
In each of the above patents, there is nothing provided to simulate actual players on the board surface. Furthermore, player movement is extremely limited in that, as noted above, it only occurs lengthwise of the board. The players are not able to dodge or otherwise try to avoid one another lateral and diagonal movement over the board surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,068 issued Dec. 7, 1965 to Cowels, describes a football game where the board surface, although in no way simulating an actual football field does allow forward, sideways and diagonal movement of the players over the board surface; however, once again the play of the game does not simulate actual football playing conditions as individual figures are moved singularly from one play to the next through the roll of die or draw of a card. In the Cowels game opposing offenses and defenses are not lined up against one another and moved as a group, as is the case in playing an actual football game.